A pair or dark, heavy boots stepped forward into the street. The figure wearing them was tallish with a peach colored button up shirt with the collar messily tucked back. Two or three buttons were undone and the second the last button was nowhere in sight. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and were coated in wrinkles. A black pair of suspenders were snug fit and tightly bound to a stormy grey shade of jeans. His skin was a soft dull ivory color adorned with two piercings in the right ear and one in the septum, both were a bold shade of flaming orange. His eyes were pitch black with bright marigold pupils. Four long horns the color of molten metal poked through his messy raven hair that was cut short along the sides and back but swept forward into curls in the front. He looked around fifteen but in reality he was much older. His name was Marrow.
A small confident smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth as he continued walking down the dimly lit neighboorhood road. It was roughly 4:37 am and most everyone was alseep save for three people. One of them you are now remotely framilar with, one of them was a twelve year old boy uneffectively hiding under his blankets. The last and final person awake was the issue. And it was because of her that our little stranger was here.
All of the houses closely resembled each other with the exception of the occational unique window or porch. They all had the same interior design and were decorated in a similar fashion. The walls with white and with black siding. Each one had their small grey address nailed to the siding. The stars were out but only a handful of the brightest were visable. A dark cloud started to pass infront of the sliver of moon causing the sky to dim slightly. He walked briskly along the sidewalk, glancing at the addresses until he came across the house labeled 629 on Burwood St. Recognizing the number, he made a sharp left turn and strolled down the driveway, his hand drifting subconsciously towards his far right horn. He stopped infront of the wall and gazed up through the window. It was cracked open slightly and was mostly covered by a pair of white curtains. The boy was inside and was huddling even tighter together. He was trying to keep quiet but his sharp gasps of air and choked sobs excaped him. Marrow closed his eyes and took a deep slow breath. He could feel his eyes rolling back in his skull and was reunited with the odd feeling of being submerged in hot and cold water at the same time. He then took a step forwards and walked right though the wall, causing ripples to run though his body. Once inside he opened his eyes and his they rolled back in place. His vision returned and he was met with the inside of the little boys room. It was painted a faint cyan with a white ceilling and a hard wood floor that was coated in loose toys and scattered drawings. The room was dimly lit with a nightlight that gave off a dull yellow glow.
A sharp noise that resembled nails being dragged roughly across a chalkboard filled the room and the boy sobbed louder and tightened his hands on the blanket. She was here. Long black finger nails curled around the bottom of the bed and a shadowy figure slowly crawled out from underneath, her nails making deep gashes into the wood. Her body was a mess of extra legs, segmented body parts, and matty hair. She rose to her full height and filled most of the room. Her face was long and thin, which broke into a joyless grin as she stumbled closer to the boy. Marrow's fingers grasped tightly on his right horn and quickly drew a glowing orange blade from his head. Without missing a beat he struck fast and impaled the beast with his sword causing her to shriek out in pain. Her head spun around a full one eighty degrees and lunged towards him, her body becoming shapeless and smoke like. He quickly jumped to the left and she barreled right into the wall disorientated. He took this moment to strike again and again until her body started to shift to a pale peach color. She gave off a hiss filled with hatred and then disapated away into nothingness. He sighed with relief and then sheithed it back into his skull. Now that the danger had passed, he turned his attention back to the boy who had quieted down immediently after she had gone. His breathing become more regular and his body relaxed. He spoke once,"Sweet dreams." and then disapeared back into the night.
She would come back eventually to feast on his nightmares but he had given him some time, it would take her a while to regain her strength and he'll be back to ward her away when she does. It was exhausting doing this constantly without breaks but he couldn't stop, even for a day. The world was already over run with those creatures ironicly nicknamed petals. Don't ask where the name came from though. No one really knows where it came from but it just stuck and no one's ever really tried to change it. They stalk people and feed them bad thoughts and emotions and then survive off of the misery they created. There used to be a whole fleet of warriors who would hunt and fend them off but they've since died off and only a few remain. Marrow has been holding that burden for just shy of a century and it's starting to take it's toll.
He stopped just infront of a stop sign and looked up towards the sky. Black velvety batlike wings erupted from the sides of his back filling the already torn fabric. His wings stretched outwards and then launched him into the silent sky. The wind whistled loudly in his ears as city lights sped blurred by. Marrow closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of wind ruslting through is hair. As trapped as he was in his fate he could at least enjoy these moments of pure bliss. It was one of the few things that kept him going.
He felt a sharp tug in his gut and imediently knew that there was another petal nearby. An address number flashed in his mind and he sharply swooped down towards that direction. Marrow had such a keen sense of direction that not even he understood. It just always seemed like he knew exactly where to go and when. He landed smoothly behind a bush and retracted his winds back into his body. He didn't really have to hide from everybody but he perfered it this way. The less people he interacted with the less distractions he'd have. The supernatural was something most had come to accept as reality at this point. There of course were the few non believers stating that the contstant hauntings or strange happenings were nothing but coincidences but they were few to find and were usually tossed aside and made fun off. Marrow definitely believed in the supernatural, it was practically his entire life to protect people from hostile beings. Not to mention the fact that he himself was a demon, a race of life with the sole purpose of protecting. At least that's what people told him. He didn't really feel like a protector or a great warrior. He felt like he was barely scraping by and just a mere shadow of the ones that came before him.
